


Too Soon

by Melethril



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Always Civil War Team Iron Man, Brains not Brawns saved the world, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Rhodey is a treasure, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 04:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17974625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: There was this one thing about Siberia that Rhodey could not get his head around. Tony had been so badly hurt.Why on Earth did Rogers not ask T'Challa to bring Tony back to civilization first before picking up Barnes and Rogers to fly off to Wakanda? T'Challa had brought Zemo to justice, so why did they leave Tony in Siberia?Standing vigil in Tony's hospital room, he decided to ask.





	Too Soon

**Author's Note:**

> Given Happy's reaction regarding a potential invitation for Steve Rogers (SM:H - "Too soon") and Rhodey's reaction to the return of Team Cap, I cannot help but wonder just how much Tony told them about Siberia.
> 
> This author is unabashedly pro Civil War Team Iron Man and utterly unsurprised that yet again, there were no consequences for anyone that is not named Tony Stark.

 

It all worked out. The Avengers had saved the world... hell, the _universe_. Mostly thanks to the combined genius of one Shuri of Wakanda, Anthony Edward Stark, Drs. Bruce Banner, Jane Foster and Helen Cho (and the foresight of Dr. Strange who had known to save a key element), and thanks to the knowledge held by Captain Marvel. They successfully reversed the Snap, but the memory of it remained.

The ones who had been ‘Snapped’ remembered crumbling into nothing, the ones who had remained remembered the utter chaos and _pain_ of witnessing the death of loved ones, the sheer panic that followed the Snap, the devastation when yet another friend did not pick up the phone (once some sort of connection was restored).

The mess with the Accords seemed to have occurred _years_ ago, yet Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes could not help but think of it today as he sat beside the liveless body of his best friend. Oh, Tony had survived and all the doctors assured him that he would live and make a fully recovery of both mind and body, but the idiot had put himself through an enormous strain in his attempt to fly across the galaxy with a barely functional _Milano_ with only Nebula for company. He had no idea what happened on that trip, but Nebula (who still had a sister to mourn as the ones to have died from anything but the Snap itself remained dead) barely left Tony’s side, as if glaring at the engineer would make him wake up faster. If she did not stand vigil, she was connected to FRIDAY, learning everything she could about the world she currently lived in.

 _“He’s a weak human_ ,” she had once said, looking as angry as ever. “ _His body is frail, it’s pathetic.”_

 _“Then why are you here?”_ Rhodey had hissed in return. His heart was aching with worry for Tony and with grief. This victory was hard-won; so many people were just gone, Vision for example, poor soul, his life had been so short and it was like losing JARVIS a second time. Thank God for Shuri, who had picked up the surviving code and was preserving it until Tony’s recovery.

_“You’ve been here for three days straight. Why are you here if you think he’s pathetic?”_

_“His mind and heart are so strong!”_ she shouted, apparently two seconds away from murdering Rhodey. _“Why does he have such a pathetically weak body?”_

 _“Because that’s what being human is,”_ Rhodey sniped back. _“We don’t live long; we don’t get to have any upgrades. We live, some longer than others, and then we die.”_

 _“The Captain has an upgraded body. Why not give that to Stark instead?”_ she countered sharply. _“I like Earth music,”_ she switched topics, leaving Rhodey with mental whiplash. “ _There is a wisdom to it. One of the pieces I’ve been listening to is from something - a musician-musiton-musical! – and it sings ‘What is the good of the strongest heart in a body that’s falling apart?’ I listened to it today. It sounds like Stark to me.”_

It really did.

Rhodey looked to the current occupant in the room; he was yet another regular visitor in addition to Pepper, the two boys, Happy, Rhodey, Nebula and the group of masterminds who had helped save the world as well as Rocket who had formed a deep _snarkship_ with Tony over their mutual love for tinkering.

Steve Rogers.

“You know, it’s been a while and I guess too many things have happened since, but let me just tell you that I still think we did the right thing supporting the Accords,” commented Rhodey out of the blue. “Still, I’m grateful you stopped those supersoldiers in Siberia. They pulled a number on Tony, I tell you. Haven’t seen him this banged up since Afghanistan.”

“I’m sorry?” asked the other man, confused.

“Granted I was kind of _occupied_ with recovering from a spinal injury,” he could not help the slight bitterness that slipped into his tone here. He had been so relieved with the return of the other Avengers the day Thanos’ goons arrived what with Tony being MIA and all, but the fight at the Berlin airport was not entirely forgotten. It had seemed wrong to hold a grudge, though, given that it was friendly fire that brought him down. “But Tony told me about the other, infinitely more dangerous HYDRA Winter Soldiers and how you found out about that bunker. Did Zemo unleash them on you, or what? Tony just said that he had his ass kicked by two supersoldiers and that Barnes’ triggers were part of the reason for your hasty retreat with T’Challa. I’m guessing that Zemo used the triggers to send Barnes after Tony, right? Must’ve been really chaotic.” He did not know why his insides clenched. When Tony gave him a brief rundown, it had made sense for all but this last part. “That’s the reason why you left Tony in a dead suit, right? To protect him from Barnes’ triggers.”

That was not the case, apparently.

Steve corrected him.

By the time the World War II veteran was done with his narration, Rhodey’s eyes were wide.

_“Tony let himself be manipulated by Zemo.”_

_“They all had to watch a video of the Starks being murdered.”_

_“Tony attacked Bucky, but it wasn’t him!”_

_“He went crazy and I had to stop him.”_

The repulsor was in Rhodey’s hand before he knew what was happening.

“Get out!”

“Rhodes, look…”

“Get out or I swear to God, I will kill you. I don’t care if you helped saving the universe.”

Thankfully, Rogers listened and left, leaving Rhodey a trembling mess. He was positively vibrating with anger.

Tony had lied to him.

Well, not lied, but certainly omitted a few key elements, such as the names of the supersoldiers who had nearly killed him, implying but not outright saying that it was the monsters created by HYDRA and not his own teammates, or that he had been forced to watch his parents’ murder while the hand that killed them stood right next to him.

“Damn it, Tony!” he gasped. “Why on Earth would you keep this to yourself?”

“Because you would have never trusted them again and every remaining Avenger was needed to save the world.”

Startled, Rhodey whirled around only to see his oldest and dearest friend looking at him with resignation, love and that ever-present brilliance.

“Not when they returned. The Snap happened after.”

“Well, _I_ needed _you_ to be part of the Avengers and you wouldn’t have been if you knew.”

Rhodey swallowed dryly in the face of his brother’s faith in him.

“Perhaps the world didn’t need the Avengers. Ultimately, we really just needed _you_ ,” was all Rhodey could reply.

Tony did not reply. Instead, he had fallen asleep yet again. He was probably still too tired to have this talk.

“We’ve got time, Tony, I’ll let you know when you wake up.”


End file.
